What the St Louis Rams know about Ferguson is a righteous glimpse of the way forward
Protesting the death of Michael Brown is not a political act, no matter what the pundits say. These are five men who don’t want to die for being black. This is personal"
Before their Sunday NFL game against the Oakland Raiders, five players from the St Louis Rams walked onto the field, their hands raised in a now-familiar gesture of support – “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” – for Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was killed by by the police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, and whose grieving family was denied justice last week when a grand jury declined to prosecute Wilson.
Later that same evening, the St Louis Police Officers Association issued a statement denouncing the nonviolent act of protest as “tasteless” and “inflammatory”. The cops called for the players involved to be disciplined, they demanded an apology, and they seemingly took particular offense to the players’ unwillingness to accept that the grand jury’s decision not to indict Brown means that justice was somehow served.
The next day, conservative pundits framed the players’ act as political – and the very word, political, was an accusation. "
But protesting the death of Michael Brown was not a political act – at least, not in the way it is being framed by political pundits. It was the act of black men who are or may someday parent black children. They are men with significant others and parents and siblings who also know the challenges of living and breathing while black. They are men who don’t want to die for being black. They don’t want their children to die for being black. I cannot think of a more personal act. "
*But those five football players may have offered us a glimpse of the way forward. They committed a personal act. They made a clear and concise statement that they would not stand, silently, in the face of injustice. They forced us all to look at the things from which we all too often choose to look away. They reminded us of the precarious nature of black life in America, and how that nature needs to change. "
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/03/st-louis-rams-ferguson-protesting-death-michael-brown
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except some jaundiced perspective given you by this GJ testimony documents. 2 said his hands were down, 10 said his hands were up. Mcullock guided this process, beginning to end, he defended wilsonthepig and purposefully muddied the water with confusion about statues and law with the pithy, scheming answer "let's not have a law class" or something like that when asked about the law by the GJ. That GJ which just let him frame the case as all wanted it framed......this continued 'confusion' is not laudable or admirable. The legal process for Michael Brown ended with Michael Brown being shot at while running away, killed while having his hands up in surrender. It is a fact that this GJ and the witnesses were 'guided' in their statements. You can and are entitled to your conclusion. Don't need you screaming anything in Michael Browns favor. He has millions of people on the other side of your millions that know what the truth is because we live with the fear every day that we will end up laying dead, bullet riddled and bleeding in the street for 5 hours for no more of an offense than jaywalking while black, in front of a cowardly, racist police person like wilsonthepig......
is needed today. You are gracious.
"Not my understanding..."
That's very, very surprising.
